3/14/13

Where science and religion meet

By Colleen Walsh

Harvard News Office
Thursday, May 8, 2008

Staff photo Kris Snibbe/Harvard News Office

Where and how science and
religion intersect is a debate that dates back centuries; it’s also a
regular part of contemporary discourse.
The discussion took center stage at the 2007-08 Paul Tillich Lecture
on Monday (May 5) in the Science Center’s lecture hall B, where a noted
astrophysicist and religious scholar explored the deeper dimensions of
science’s relationship to Islam.
The annual lecture is named in honor of Paul Tillich, the great
German-born theologian and philosopher and University Professor at
Harvard University from 1954 to 1962.
Bruno Guiderdoni, who is uniquely qualified to speak on the topic,
titled his lecture “Science, Faith and the Dialogue of Cultures: Islamic
Perspectives.” The French native is widely recognized as an expert on
galaxy formation and evolution as well as a prominent interpreter of
Islam. He has written numerous papers on both topics and is the director
of research at France’s National Center for Scientific Research and
co-founder and director of the Islamic Institute for Advanced Studies in
Paris.
He addressed the intersection of Islam and science and countered
recent claims that Islam’s inability to make a solid connection to
reason is responsible for its lack of participation in the scientific
world.
In examining some of Islam’s essential principles, Guiderdoni
asserted the “spiritual tenets and intellectual resources of the Islamic
faith actually prompt Muslims to search for knowledge.”
The Quran, he said, provides many examples of Islam’s strong ties to knowledge.
The holy text provides Muslims “with a way to celebrate God’s mystery
as well as to approach his intelligibility,” said Guiderdoni. “This
intelligibility requires the use of reason encapsulated in a broader
perspective of knowledge.”
“A famous Quranic verse,” said the scientist, “prescribes ‘worship
your lord till certainty,’ and many prophetic sayings strongly recommend
the pursuit of knowledge as a religious duty ‘incumbent to all
Muslims.’”
Famous Islamic scholars throughout the years, said Guiderdoni, noted
that “reason is God’s gift to the human being, and God warrants its
efficacy.”
A strong Islamic ethic can also inform the science of the present
day, said Guiderdoni. He offered the example of man, created, according
to Islamic doctrine, to be the “garden keeper in the garden” — to look
after the other garden inhabitants.
“This symbol of the garden keeper in the garden has a strong echo
today, with the current debates on how to deal with global warming, the
share of natural resources in a sustainable way, or the preservation of
biodiversity,” said Guiderdoni. “The power that science has given us
must be accompanied by a greater sense of the ethic that is necessary to
use this power with discrimination and intelligence.”
Respondent David Lamberth appreciated Guiderdoni’s presentation of
the Islamic perspective on man as entrusted with the well-being of the
planet. The notion, he said, challenged the dominant Christian theology
described in Genesis, that humans are granted dominion over all
creatures in the sea and on the earth.
“Humans,” he said, “are not above animals or plants or all of
creation on [Guiderdoni’s] reading, but rather have a particular and
important role to play, which places us at the center in relation to
God’s plans for creation.”
Moreover, noted Lamberth, associate professor of theology at Harvard
Divinity School, the metaphor implies a responsibility that has
important implications in regards to the scientific challenges of the
present day.
“This whole line of theological reflection, as Dr. Guiderdoni notes,
is particularly salient and promising with regard to environmental
issues that are so crucial in our contemporary world.”
Religion and science can learn from each other, asserted respondent
Howard Smith, senior astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center
for Astrophysics.
Smith, author of “Let There Be Light: Modern Cosmology and Kabbalah: A
New Conversation Between Science and Religion” (New World Library,
2006), said that astronomers who once had a reasonably firm grasp on
their understanding of the cosmos are no longer quite so sure.
“We discovered dark matter and dark energy,” he said. “Our discomfort
has grown because we still have no idea what they really are. I think
we scientists are being admirably honest in admitting that we do not
know as much as we thought, and this lesson of humility is one that
science can offer to theologians.”
Smith offered the phrase “open up to me,” saying it has a profound implication for each discipline.
“This is the call of modern science to spiritual seekers, open
yourself up to the wonders of the universe as revealed by science and to
the insights that relay that sense of awe,” he said. “This is also the
call of religion to the scientists … open up to the possibilities of
wonder, love, and to the ethical responsibility of living in a quantum
multiverse that, behold, is very good.”